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Archive for April, 2011
Friday, April 29th, 2011
After two days of play the inaugural World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is down to 147 players, and sitting on top of the leader-board is long-time poker pro Todd Terry with 296,400 chips. The $10,000 buy-in tournament attracted a solid starting field of 433 players, an impressive number in the wake of Black Friday, not to mention the tournament is competing head-on with the WSOP Circuit Series taking place at Caesar’s Palace, as well as the EPT San Remo tournament.
Terry was one of 10 players that managed to end Day 2 with over 200,000 chips, another high-profile member of that group being Annette Obrestad who finds herself in 8th place on the leader-board with 213,500 chips. Here is a look at the Top 10 chip counts heading into Day 3 of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown:
1. Todd Terry — 296,400
2. Charles Wiper — 273,100
3. Steven Levy — 247,300
4. Brandon Steven — 237,600
5. Mike Beasley — 231,000
6. Farhan Madhani — 227,300
7. Brian Colin — 224,500
8. Annette Obrestad — 213,500
9. Jason Koon — 207,700
10. James Mackey — 205,100
Lurking farther down the leader-board are other notable names like James Carroll, Randy Dorfman, Noah Schwartz, Mike Sexton, Sam Stein, David Baker, Adam Levy, Blair Hinkle, Allen Bari, Vivek Rajkumar, Joe Serock, Chino Rheem, and Maria Ho.
Tags: Adam Levy, Black Friday, David Baker, EPT, Farhan, Impressive Number, Inaugural World, Koon, Leader Board, Mike Beasley, Mike Sexton, Poker Pro, Poker Showdown, Rajkumar, Rheem, San Remo, Seminole Hard Rock, Serock, Steven Levy, World Poker Tour
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Friday, April 29th, 2011
In a recent blog post on BlueFirePoker.com one of the most successful online poker players in the history of the game, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, talked about the effects of Black Friday for himself, as well as touching upon the future of online poker in the US as he sees it playing out.
After talking about the options available to US players, one of which is moving outside of the US –which Galfond himself is contemplating, as well as considering just sitting back and taking some time off from the tables and focusing on coaching and other endeavors, Galfond goes on to give his explanation on why US poker players should not count on having online poker legalized in the near future.
“One thing that is very important: Do not bank on online poker becoming legal soon.
1) You shouldn’t ever be unprepared for the negative outcome. Make sure you keep savings, find new work, whatever it is that you would do if you knew online poker would be impossible to play from the US for 6 years. If you’re wrong, and it’s legal in 1 year, it’s a lot better than assuming it’s coming sooner and being unprepared when it doesn’t.
2) From what I understand, it probably will take a long time, if it does end up happening (which I think it will). Even if lots of people in the government want online poker to be legal, it’s just a slow process.”
Tags: 6 Years, Black Friday, Blog, Endeavors, Game, Government Online, Long Time, Moving, Negative Outcome, Omgclayaiken, One Thing, Online History, online poker, Options, People Online, Poker History, Poker Players
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Friday, April 29th, 2011
As Black Friday continues to be examined from virtually every angle, the World Poker Tour’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is the first major US poker tournament to take place after the fallout from April 15th, but unfortunately as a first-time event there is no way to compare this year’s turnout by looking at prior tournament attendance.
That said the 406 players that showed up for Day 1 of the Main Event at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino is one of the best turnouts on Season 9 of the WPT. Attendance may increase slightly as registration will remain open until Day 2 begins.
As with most $10k tournaments, the tournament saw a bevy of poker pros make the trip to Florida, with some of poker’s best having solid Day 1 performances. Among the 290 survivors from Day 1 were Jason Mercier, Harrison Gimbel, Robert Mizrachi, while Dwyte Pilgrim, Faraz Jaka, and Antonio Esfandiari all hit the rail on Day 1.
Here is a look at the Top 10 chip counts heading into Day 2 of the World Poker Tour’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown:
1. Randy Dorfman – 160,000
2. Nick Grippo – 149,375
3. James Carroll – 130,925
4. Todd Terry – 124,975
5. Seth Davies – 115,225
6. Joe Serock – 113,150
7. Marsha Wolak – 106,350
8. Elio Cubrera – 105,025
9. Jorge Chavez – 104,525
10. Aarib Schaff – 104,225
Tags: Antonio Esfandiari, Black Friday, Dorfman, Faraz, Gimbel, Grippo, Hard Rock Casino, Jorge Chavez, Poker Pros, Poker Showdown, Poker Tournament, Robert Mizrachi, Seminole Hard Rock, Seminole Hard Rock Casino, Serock, Time Event, Trip To Florida, Wolak, World Poker Tour, WPT
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Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom may struggle with some aspects of being a high-stakes online poker pro –as his wild bankroll swings can attest to—but one thing is for certain; Isildur1 is definitely one of the best heads-up No Limit Holdem players in online poker as his now 7-1 record in the PokerStras Superstar Showdown matches attests to.
Blom’s latest opponent was his second online qualifier from PokerStars, and this time around the margin of victory would be much higher than the single Big Blind victory he booked over “DodgyFish72”. Once again PokerStars staked their online qualifier with $15,000 and let him loose on Isildur1 at four $5/$10 NLHE tables with the knowledge that he will get to keep whatever amount is remaining of his stake money at the end of the match.
“MasterMixus” as Blom’s opponent is known by at the online poker tables, was giving Blom everything he could handle until with about 100 hands to go, and the match virtually all-square, he decided to just ride it out and lock up a nice $13,721 score since he was allowed to keep whatever was left of his stake money.
Blom has now defeated Tony G, Daniel Cates, Eugene Katchalov, Daniel Negreanu, Scott Palmer and the two online qualifiers, with his only defeat coming in the very first Superstars Showdown against Isaac Haxton.
Tags: Blom, Daniel Negreanu, High Stakes Online Poker, Isaac Haxton, Margin Of Victory, Match, Money, One Thing, Poker Tables, PokerStars, Score, Scott Palmer, Showdown Opponent, Stake, Superstars, Swings
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Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
In the wake of Black Friday there was a huge exodus from a number of online poker rooms, even ones unaffected by the FBI and DOJ seizures and indictments. Now, nearly two weeks later we are starting to see traffic level-off at most of the online poker sites, and there is definitely some cause for concern from UB Poker and Absolute Poker players.
UB and AP Poker, which make up the Cereus Poker Network, have definitely been the hardest hit by the US crackdown. According to the online poker tracking site www.pokerscout.com, the Cereus Network has shed nearly 2/3 of their player base since April 15th. Compare this to PokerStars, which lost about 28% of their total traffic, and Full Tilt Poker, which initially saw a 50% drop before rebounding during the FTOPS and ending up down about 35% overall.
The Cereus Poker Network has dropped from a Top 10 poker room/network all the way down to #22 on pokerscout.com’s list. This is despite the sites’ claims that they are no longer accepting US players, but many players are saying they are having no trouble at all logging into the site and playing online poker for real-money.
This could spell the end for the oft-troubled poker network which has seen both of their poker rooms involved in Super-User cheating scandals, and has been the poster-child for all that is wrong in the online poker industry –from secrecy to cover-ups, to inferior encryption.
Tags: absolute poker, Black Friday, Doj, Exodus, Full Tilt Poker, Indictments, Online Poker Rooms, Online Poker Sites, Poker Network, Poker Players, Poker Room Network, PokerStars, Poster Child, Real Money, Scandals, Secrecy, Seizures, Traffic Level, Ups, Us Crackdown
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
When Niall Smyth placed a €10 bet on the horses, and saw it turn into €200, he probably couldn’t imagine that his €10 wager would eventually lead to €650,000 score and the title of 2011 Irish Poker Open Champion. Smyth started the final table as the chip-leader, and on his way to the €550,000 first-place prize-money –Smyth also took home an additional €100,000 for being the Sole Survivor Standing from a PaddyPower Poker promotion—he would have to battle the most experienced player at the final table in heads-up play, Surinder Sunar.
Smyth also had some competition for the €100,000 Sole Survivor bonus as Karl Rudwall and Rob Taylor were also both in search of that added prize, but Taylor and Rudwall exited in 7th and 6th place respectively, immediately boosting Smyth’s payday by six-figures.
“It started when I put €10 each way on the winner of the English Grand National, I won €200 euro and now I have €650,000. Surinder is such a great player, my support has been fantastic, and here I am!”
Here is a look at the payouts for the final table of the Irish Poker Open:
1. Niall Smyth– €550,000
2. Surinder Sunar – €290,000
3. Martin Petri – €180,000
4. Seamus Cahill – €145,000
5. Aleksi Savela – €115,000
6. Karl Rudwall – €85,000
7. Rob Taylor – €63,000
8. John Eames – €45,000
9. Niall McCann – €30,000
Tags: Bet, Bonus, Cahill, Grand National, Horses, Mccann, Open Champion, Petri, poker, Prize Money, Rob Taylor, Savela, Score, Six Figures, Sole Survivor, Wager, Wins
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Monday, April 25th, 2011
It was obvious to anyone that online poker’s Black Friday was going to be the predominant story in poker media for quite a while, but what made the story stand out even more was the fact that there was very little going on in the poker world! There were no EPT tournaments, no WPT tournaments, no nothing!
Well all of that is about to change as poker gets ready to return to business as usual –post-Black Friday– with the EPT San Remo Main Event which is less than two days away. The San Remo stop will then be followed by the EPT Grand Finale which is taking place in Barcelona, Spain for the first time less than a week later.
The PokerStars San Remo is one of the crown jewels on the EPT schedule each year, and will once again feature €5,000 buy-in. Last year’s tournament attracted a huge field of 1,240 entrants and was won by Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree, giving the young poker pro her first major tournament title.
As the first major tournament to take place after the ominous day in poker history of Friday April 15th, 2011, the EPT San Remo will also serve as a measuring stick of sorts for the overall effect on poker in Europe, while the upcoming World Series of Poker in late May will give us a good indication of the poker landscape in the US.
Tags: Barcelona Spain, Black Friday, Crown Jewels, EPT, Grand Finale, Landscape, Liv, Main Event, Measuring Stick, online poker, Poker History, Poker Pro, Poker World, PokerStars, Readies, San Remo, Series Of Poker, Sorts, World Series, World Series Of Poker
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | No Comments »
Monday, April 25th, 2011
With all of the major weekly guaranteed tournaments seeing a huge decrease in their guaranteed prize-pools it should come as no surprise that PokerStars has decided to make widespread adjustments to their upcoming Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) tournament series.
Not only did PokerStars drastically reduce the total guaranteed prize-pools for the SCOOP tournament series from $45 million down to $25 million, but they also decided to adjust the schedule to better accommodate European and Asian Players now that US poker players are completely out of the picture.
Each SCOOP tournament at PokerStars will now start three hours ahead of the original start time which will align with peak hours in Europe and Asia much better than the previous start times, which focused on US players.
Despite a nearly 50% cut in the total guaranteed prize-money, the SCOOP tournament series remains one of the largest in online poker, and is extremely popular due to its innovative format which sees three separate tournaments at small, medium, and high-stakes buy-ins for each tournament.
The 2011 SCOOP will feature a total of 38 poker tournaments and will begin on May 8th and run through May 22, 2011 when the three SCOOP Main Events will take place with buy-ins ranging from $109, to up over $10k:
Low: $109 buy-in - $750,000 guarantee
Med: $1,050 buy-in - $1,500,000 guarantee
High: $10,300 buy-in - $2,500,000 guarantee
For the complete SCOOP schedule you can visit www.pokerstars.com, or www.pokerstars.eu
Tags: Asia, Asian Players, Europe, Guarantees, High Stakes, Ins, online poker, Peak Hours, Poker Players, Poker Tournament, Poker Tournaments, PokerStars, Pools, Prize Money, Scoop, Surprise, Tournament Series
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
After nearly a week of waiting, players on the Cereus Poker Network –Absolute Poker and UB Poker—finally got their first statement from the site regarding the seizure of their domain name by the FBI and DOJ, as well as the indictments handed down to key players in the Absolute Poker organization.
While not as conciliatory as the Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars statements, Absolute Poker’s statement also makes player deposits the top priority, and it appears a channel has been opened in dialogues with the US Attorney Office for the Southern District of New York:
“Absolute Poker has retained Blank Rome LLP as United States counsel to provide legal advice in relation to civil and criminal matters filed in federal court in Manhattan and made public on April 15, 2011. Absolute Poker is aware that on April 19, 2011, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into separate agreements with FullTilt Poker and PokerStars. These agreements concern the use of the respective www.fulltiltpoker.com and www.pokerstars.com domain names. The US Attorney, in a press release dated April 20, 2011, stated that the government is willing to enter the same agreement with Absolute Poker and UB.
“At this time, Absolute Poker’s top priority is, and must be, the refund of balances to its and UB’s US players. However, given the far-reaching consequences of the US Attorney’s actions for Absolute Poker and for the entire poker community, Absolute Poker believes that the responsible course of action is to review with its attorneys the relevant court filings before taking any action.”
“Absolute Poker believes that the US Attorney shares the view that refunds to US players are an immediate and pressing concern, and Absolute Poker wishes to make clear that it wants to work cooperatively with the US Attorney to safely and efficiently return its players’ funds. To that end, Absolute Poker’s counsel has initiated communications with the US Attorney’s office and plans to continue proactively advancing those discussions.”
“Further information and timely updates will be provided to Absolute Poker/UB’s players as we move forward.”
Tags: absolute poker, Attorney Office, Blank Rome Llp, Consequences, Court Filings, Criminal Matters, Dialogues, Doj, Domain Names, Fbi, Full Tilt Poker, Indictments, Legal Advice, Manhattan, Poker Network, PokerStars, Rome, Seizure, Southern District Of New York, Top Priority
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
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